Railway-frog



(No Model.)

m g 7 u Z I M m l w u w E M P m: inoRms PETER! 00,, Pnmo-Lrmu, wAsmNaYoNo c UNITED STATES PATENT. OFFI E.

.BURDINE BLAKE, OF LONDON, OHIO.

RAILWAY-FROG.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 524,457, dated August14,1894. Application filed December 27, 1893. Serial No. 494,893- (Nomodel.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, BURDINE BLAKE, acitizen of the United States,residing at London, in the county of Madison and State of Ohio, haveinvented a new and useful Railroad- Frog, of which the following is aspecification.

The invention relates to improvements in railroad frogs.

Theobject of the present invention is to improve the construction ofrailroad frogs, switches, crossings and the like, where converging railsare employed, and to provide means, whereby the foot of a person will beprevented from being caught and locked between such converging rails.

The invention consists in the construction and novel combination andarrangement of parts hereinafter fully described, illustrated in theaccompanying drawings, and pointed out in the claim hereto appended.

In the drawings-Figure 1 is a perspective view of a railroad frogprovided with my improvements. Figs. 2 and 3, are transverse sectionalviews of the same.

Like numerals of reference indicate corres spending parts in all thefigures of the drawings.

1 designates a railroad frog constructed of rolled or other metal, andconsisting of a single piece of metal, or any other desiredconstruction. The frog, which is provided with the usual convergingrails 2, meeting and forming a point 3, has the inner opposed faces ofthese rails 2 inwardly inclined at 4, and forming a V-shaped space orrecess between the rails. The inclination of the inner sides 4 of therails 2, is sufficiently great to prevent any liability of the foot of aperson becoming wedged between the rails; and this result often happenswhen the inner faces of the converging ralls are vertical,orsubstantially so, or when the ordinary construction of rails isemployed, the latter being the most dangerous for converging rails. Theinclined inner faces 4 of the rails 2, as the latter separate, graduallymerge into the ordinary configuration of a rail.

In the accompanying drawings, the converging rails having the inwardlyinclined oppositely disposed faces are shown applied only to a frog, butit will be readily understood that this construction is equallyapplicable to switches, crossings and similar constructions, and Idesire it to be understood that changes necessary to adapt the inventionto thesevarious kinds of rails may be employed without departing fromthe spirit of the invention.

It will be seen that by the particular construction of the inner opposedfaces of the converging rails all liability of the foot of a personbecoming caught between them and being locked or wedged is prevented.

What I claim is- In a frog or the like, the converging rails havingtheir inner opposed faces downwardly and inwardly inclined at a wideangle and forming a V-shaped space or recess between them, the inclinedfaces gradually merging into the ordinary configuration of a rail as therails separate, substantially as and for the purpose described.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto affixedmy signature in the presence of two witnesses.

BURDIN E BLAKE.

Witnesses:

J OHN H. SIGGERS, Gno. O. SHOEMAKER.

